From Software Elden Ring - From Software's new game with writing by GRRM

[Grampy_Bone]

You can faceroll most bosses with comet azure. Moonlight sword and moonveil katana are busted weapons. Int build is EZ mode in this game. I find it hard to believe Sorcs get gimped that badly in the expansion.

So far my standard tactic of buff + crush with holy sword lazors works on everything, and I just use a basic bronze shield + dodgeroll, no greatshield. I admit Rellana felt a little cheap when she killed me in 3 hits from a single combo after I biffed a dodge, but I got her on my second try. And I'm not a super good souls player, I'd never subject myself to a SL 1 run or anything like that.

 

[H. P. Lovecraft's Cat]

There's a statue that looks a bit like Vicar Amelia. It has hooves though so not her.

 

[Jinn]

The Dueling Shield is absurdly good. Just found it last night, and upgraded and started using it tonight. Swapped out its ash of war to one that causes bleed, and oh man, this is now a complete tool of destruction.

Been playing around with a lot of the new weapons, but have been sticking mostly with Beast Claws, Dry-Leaf Arts, and the Dragon-Hunter's Great Katana. Too early to tell, but Dueling Shield might have just taken the throne.

 

[H. P. Lovecraft's Cat]

Yeah Messmer is fuckin bullshit. I'm cheesing this bitch.

 

[H. P. Lovecraft's Cat]

Man Shadow Keep is excellent. Best legacy dungeon in Elden Ring, base game included. It's enormous. Shame the bosses there suck ass.

 

[Stoned Ape]

Looks like there's a new hero in town. The time of Let MeSoloHer has passed, the era of LetMeTankHim has begun:

Spoiler

 

[Hell Swarm]

Yeah Messmer is fuckin bullshit. I'm cheesing this bitch.

Oh look another one of the "This game is so easy why even try" crowd meets a medium difficulty DLC boss and suddenly they have to cheese them. Strange how these people are all the same and show they have no skill or personality, just a wiki and an I win button.

Looks like there's a new hero in town. The time of Let MeSoloHer has passed, the era of LetMeTankHim has begun:

Leave Reddit on Reddit. It's fucking cancer to beat a boss for someone else. I had considered putting summon signs down to learn the boss better for a SL1 run but I don't want to carry someone else and ruin their game. Could also do with spoiling since it's showing the last boss. Not everyone can do the DLC in 1 week.

 

[Stoned Ape]

Yeah Messmer is fuckin bullshit. I'm cheesing this bitch.

Oh look another one of the "This game is so easy why even try" crowd meets a medium difficulty DLC boss and suddenly they have to cheese them. Strange how these people are all the same and show they have no skill or personality, just a wiki and an I win button.

Looks like there's a new hero in town. The time of Let MeSoloHer has passed, the era of LetMeTankHim has begun:

Leave Reddit on Reddit. It's fucking cancer to beat a boss for someone else. I had considered putting summon signs down to learn the boss better for a SL1 run but I don't want to carry someone else and ruin their game. Could also do with spoiling since it's showing the last boss. Not everyone can do the DLC in 1 week.

Personally I think it's pretty great you can beat everything in the game by using heavy armour and a great shield+pointed stick combo. No more having to rely on goofy looking rollspam to win.

 

[Hell Swarm]

Personally I think it's pretty great you can beat everything in the game by using heavy armour and a great shield+pointed stick combo. No more having to rely on goofy looking rollspam to win.

Blocking looks just as goofy but it's not about how you beat the boss yourself. It's wannabe e-celebs trying to create online identities through ruining the game for others. Summons shouldn't be enabled until NG+ when a player has proven they can beat every boss solo.

 

[Child of Malkav]

Man Shadow Keep is excellent. Best legacy dungeon in Elden Ring, base game included. It's enormous. Shame the bosses there suck ass.

I liked the church district. With the water you have to drain and how you travel on the rooftops there beforehand.
And I also liked the grand arch--- I mean the specimen storeroom. 7 floors with many, many secrets and interconnectivity between floors.

 

[Child of Malkav]

I beat Midra and Messmer last night. Midra is far harder than Messmer, for me. Plus funnier. The way he stands with his arms stretched wide as he starts shooting you with bullshit, and he takes that stance a few times after he grabs you or does that explosion or whatever. IDK, it's goofy and made me laugh. But still, far harder (bullshit) than Assmer the butt impaler. Since playing with the fingerprint shield, Midra actually dealt a lot of stamina damage so at points it forces you to roll some attacks. It's preferable to blocking them. Plus before the fight, getting some madness resistance is crucial as he causes madness fast if he hits you with the spells. The grab is funny too.
Assmer is just eh. The shield was enough but I noticed in the DLC (and in the base game fir some bosses) that bosses change angles often, meaning the move to your side ir to your back and if you're locked on sometimes your character doesn't turn around in time to block an attack coming from those angles. Assmer likes this tactic a lot. So I had to dodge some attacks there as well. Used fingerprint shield and blood claws. Surprisingly they deal a lot of damage fast, especially if you apply buffs like howl of shabriri, golden vie, commander's standard, contagious fury, in that order so they stack. The claws also had bloodhound's step on them for second phase.
The DLC apparently also has dragon forms in it and they all look like shit, malnourished, retarded little baby dragons. Only DkS2 had the best looking dragon form. Who the fuck is designing these forms over there?
Whatever gonna go explore because I missed some stuff in various places.
Btw, pest threads is the furnace golem killer. Ancient death rancor is a close second. You're welcome.

 

[HumanTotemPole]

Yeah Messmer is fuckin bullshit. I'm cheesing this bitch.

Oh look another one of the "This game is so easy why even try" crowd meets a medium difficulty DLC boss and suddenly they have to cheese them. Strange how these people are all the same and show they have no skill or personality, just a wiki and an I win button.

Looks like there's a new hero in town. The time of Let MeSoloHer has passed, the era of LetMeTankHim has begun:

Leave Reddit on Reddit. It's fucking cancer to beat a boss for someone else. I had considered putting summon signs down to learn the boss better for a SL1 run but I don't want to carry someone else and ruin their game. Could also do with spoiling since it's showing the last boss. Not everyone can do the DLC in 1 week.

Personally I think it's pretty great you can beat everything in the game by using heavy armour and a great shield+pointed stick combo. No more having to rely on goofy looking rollspam to win.

Second this. Nice to able to invalidate any annoying PvE moveset at your discretion. As an example:

Spoiler

Blackgaol Night was the 1st boss I encountered in SotE. Fun scrap. Positioning matters, no overlong combos etc. didn't feel the need to cheese GC him to death. 7/10 would fight again.

On the way back to the initial overworld bonfire I aggroed some anorexic Omen-looking thing with dual frisbees. Intuited correctly that it would have an annoying, spazzy moveset but all the floaty double-kick backflip bollocks didn't matter when confronted with a FSS and Great Epee. Good to have that option in the back pocket if I can't be arsed to learn a moveset.

 

[Bloodeyes]

I'm tempted to take my Bubble mage through the DLC to see how bad casters have it. He can only use the bubble weapons weapon arts to deal damage. I wonder if I could find windows to blow my horn on most of these bosses.

Envoy's greathorn got nerfed in patch 1.12 lol. Also that sounds like hell. You may need to use endure to be able to do such slow weapon arts. All these bosses are very fast and aggressive. I'm not even using my thorns against bosses. I've mostly used an unsheathe nagakiba or a piercing fang iron greatsword. My spells are just for pest control and PvP to be honest.

 

[Nathir]

Messmer down. Had a few moves that were hard to read, but it wasn't the insane bullshit I expected based on all the complaints. Overall was a fun fight. So far so good, Bayle was probably the best fight for me so far. Something about ascending a huge mountain with lightning and wind blasting from everywhere, only to reach the biggest dragon you've ever seen at the top... The fight is also very fun and rewarding to learn I felt like. I also liked Igon but didn't summon him during the fight as I want to do everything with no summons/ashes first. Altough I might have missed some quest rewards/developments in doing so, same with not summoning the Hornsent for Messmer.

Rauh ruins and Shadow Keep I feel like I missed stuff... but not sure. Now with Messmers defeat I can progress forward.

 

[Hell Swarm]

I'm tempted to take my Bubble mage through the DLC to see how bad casters have it. He can only use the bubble weapons weapon arts to deal damage. I wonder if I could find windows to blow my horn on most of these bosses.

Envoy's greathorn got nerfed in patch 1.12 lol. Also that sounds like hell. You may need to use endure to be able to do such slow weapon arts. All these bosses are very fast and aggressive. I'm not even using my thorns against bosses. I've mostly used an unsheathe nagakiba or a piercing fang iron greatsword. My spells are just for pest control and PvP to be honest.

I know it got nerfed but it was completely broken before hand. You found 1 opening and staggered them to death. It was insane.

 

[Strange Fellow]

Dragon-Hunter's Great Katana

I upgraded this and started using it, until I realised that I would just spam the weapon art exclusively, so I switched back to Milady (

). It doesn't do as much damage, but all of its moveset is useful and it doesn't make me spam the weapon art all the time. I find I'm having to avoid weapons like that katana, or the MLGS, otherwise I'm killing my own enjoyment.

On a different note, after having played some more I think the open world is a lot better in this than it was in the main game. The verticality is strong and the zones feel much less formulaic. Trying to find ways of reaching the high plateaus and deep gorges and riverbeds that are all around is a lot of fun, much more so than in the Lands Between where more things were on a level plane and neatly separated into different zones. This is much more an open world that you can really get lost in.

 

[MasPingon]

How much is there after Messmer fight? I'm not certein if I want to explore or finish the game for lore more. This place is like a fucking spoiler minefield.

 

[Anonona]

How much is there after Messmer fight? I'm not certein if I want to explore or finish the game for lore more. This place is like a fucking spoiler minefield.

It depends on how much optional content you have done so far. But if we are strictly speaking about "mandatory" fights and levels, then one mandatory open world area, one Legacy Dungeon, one miniboss and two bosses (or 3 bosses depending on your interpretation) . Just as the base game, most content is optional.

 

[Mortmal]

Messmer down. Had a few moves that were hard to read, but it wasn't the insane bullshit I expected based on all the complaints. Overall was a fun fight. So far so good, Bayle was probably the best fight for me so far. Something about ascending a huge mountain with lightning and wind blasting from everywhere, only to reach the biggest dragon you've ever seen at the top... The fight is also very fun and rewarding to learn I felt like. I also liked Igon but didn't summon him during the fight as I want to do everything with no summons/ashes first. Altough I might have missed some quest rewards/developments in doing so, same with not summoning the Hornsent for Messmer.

Rauh ruins and Shadow Keep I feel like I missed stuff... but not sure. Now with Messmers defeat I can progress forward.

It's easy to miss some things in Shadowkeep. There's a certain ladder that allows access to a whole new zone. There are many secrets, and I probably haven't found everything yet. There's still a spot in the library on the first floor that I can't access. Then there's the back entrance of Shadowkeep with lots of stuff to do. The exploration is clearly as good as, if not better than, previous Souls games.In Rauh Ruins, there's a very cryptic quest involving a stone sword and altars, one of which is in the underground zone I mentioned.

 

[Raghar]

So exploration is great, combat and bosses are shit?

 

[processdaemon]

So exploration is great, combat and bosses are shit?

I thought most of the bosses were fun, a bit of bullshit here and there at some point in most of their fights but plenty of very enjoyable parts too. A lot of people are frustrated with one specific boss rather than all the bosses, and I think the criticisms of that boss are fair but there are a lot of really fun fights too, with one of the ones tied to an NPC's questline being particularly memorable.

 

[Odoryuk]

So exploration is great, combat and bosses are shit?

Exploration works in tandem with combat and bosses, combat makes the exploration great

 

[Hell Swarm]

Exploration is a mixed bag. The zones are often vertical and link by hidden caves, but the caves make no sense. If you want to head north you have to enter a cave half the zone away facing east, head south for five minutes then go down a tunnel which bends north and takes you where you want to go. This also applies to how vertical some of the zones are where you can't get down or up except in 1 specific spot and no way to find it.

Exploration rewards are both better and worse. The DLC upgrades feel meaningful but the weapon material doesn't. The legacy dungeons are basically all reused assets and aren't very interesting while the side dungeons are the highlight of the DLC. Going through the Goals felt like demon's souls and they're really enjoyable.

The DLC has 4 bosses you must kill to finish it. Everything else is optional and you can collect 48 of the 52 upgrades without killing any of them so you can get yourself stacked if you want to.

So exploration is great, combat and bosses are shit?

I thought most of the bosses were fun, a bit of bullshit here and there at some point in most of their fights but plenty of very enjoyable parts too. A lot of people are frustrated with one specific boss rather than all the bosses, and I think the criticisms of that boss are fair but there are a lot of really fun fights too, with one of the ones tied to an NPC's questline being particularly memorable.

Boss spoiler

The complaints are heavily pointed at Radahn but the Lion and Boar riding faggot at getting their fair share of complaints. Both have sketchy hit boxes or move spam that's hard to manage. I would argue the pus knight is a problem as his horse can hit you at an angle you have to dodge into the riders attacks or the other way round. Can lead to taking nasty damage.

 

[Dobkeratops]

The DLC apparently also has dragon forms in it and they all look like shit, malnourished, retarded little baby dragons. Only DkS2 had the best looking dragon form. Who the fuck is designing these forms over there?

I feel like a recurring theme in these games, particularly with each new iteration of transdragon autism is how these attempts at human ascension are ill fated, pitiful and maybe a little blasphemous. It culminated with whatever the fuck Oceiros turned himself into.
At a gameplay level this "ascension" makes you squishy and poiseless with not a lot of benefit unless you're spamming dragon incants.
DS2 dragon form looked cool because it was a set of superglued armor, probably looked like a rubber chicken beneath. And besides weren't all the (alive) dragons in that game counterfeits too?

 

[Lyric Suite]

Been normal since DS3:



At least this time you get something. In the base game you get dragon eyes you can barely see that get overwritten by the other quests (blood and then frenzy in that order) and you can't even get them back. One of the reasons i picked the frenzy ending is that at least you get SOME form of physical alteration. The eye glow is actually pretty strong and you get those burn marks on your body.